The Information and Collections Management Unit is primarily responsible for the compilation and dissemination of information generated by the staff of the Council for Geoscience, as well as the acquisition of information from other Geoscience Institutions and published sources, for use by researchers within the organisation and the South African geoscience community. Its responsibilities are entrenched in the Geoscience Act (Act 100 of 1993), which stipulates in Article 5 (1) (c) that the Council for Geoscience is responsible for serving "as the national custodian of all geoscientific information relating to the earth, the marine environment and geomagnetic space". The Unit is also responsible for the management of the major CGS collections, including the National Core Library, the Geoscience Museum - gem, mineral and rock collections - and the Council for Geoscience fossil collection.